[meta] If you character were the champion or offspring of a mythological deity, which would it be and why?
Listen. I didn't want to be super obvious and jump to say Hecate, the Hellenistic goddess associated with witchcraft who sometimes crops up in Wiccan and Neo-Pagan practices, which Morgan was raised around.
But Hecate isn’t just the goddess of witchcraft. She's also a liminal goddess whose iconography was (among other things) marked on doorways to help protect the home from evil spirits.
As a goddess who moves between realms, she is also associated with the underworld. Some stories go that she helped search for Persephone, found her, stays in the underworld to serve her, and/or escorts her on her journeys in/out of that realm.
Hecate also frequently associated as the 'crone' in the triple moon image. In this configuration, Artemis often(?) serves as the 'mother'.
So, we've got a goddess of crossroads and liminal existence who likes to protect the home, dips in and out of the underworld, will travel to the ends of the universe to rescue someone, has some ties to the 'virgin goddess’ of the hunt, and is invoked in some practices as the mother of magic.
I don't know what else to say except: that’s it; the girl. Hecate champion forever.
What would you say your biggest strength is as a writer?
// This took me a dreadful time to consider. I know what I try to work on: conveying emotion through specific thought details instead of relying on more obvious physical details (ex: Morgan’s eyes stung with tears vs. Ruth Beck had said those words to her too. Had she been right all along?), evocative/immersive descriptions, more creative descriptions that incorporate Morgan’s senses/lack thereof, dialogue that walks the line between being swiftly placed and evocative of the ‘real’ thing with someone who uses a lot of fillers, qualifiers, and questions.
I think, though, because I fixate on these things and try over and over within the same paragraph sometimes (eternally sorry to my writing partners who watch me search for a way to talk about being sad in the grass five times over) I strike gold every now and then in these areas. Sometimes Morgan can be witty and make you laugh in the right way, sometimes I can get at a color and a feeling without spending a hundred words on it. And sometimes my ambling sentences find a lyrical flow that works and amplifies atmosphere and feeling just the way I want.
But I don’t know what I have consistently going for me, I’m afraid. 😅
[Meta] What does your character think is the primary conflict in their life at the moment? -Versus- What do you as an author perceive as the primary conflict?
// Right now, Morgan thinks her biggest problem is her personal relationship to violence and the extent to which she can invent, envision, and enforce alternatives. She had a cozy few months after being responsible by proxy for a lot of death and carnage, befriending saetimps with Mina, getting ghost allies to run interference to save Erin, negotiating with pixies with Leah, and trying to flee rather than fight in the face of leprechauns and face-stealers. However, the arrival of the stymphalian bird, and Morgan’s difficult decision about what to do with it, served as a grim reminder that the world will always take. Having conceded that some creatures must die, even if they’re only behaving the way they were made to, Morgan’s hope now rests on finding the peace she hopes for in her dealings with people, most recently seen in her insistence that Kyle not be harmed after the events that transpired with Bex.
Morgan is not wrong in centering her chatoic ethos as a point of concern, but her approach is individualistic, dealing with her own actions and trying to influence and help individuals on a case-by-case basis as she meets them, nothing else. There’s a bigger sociological dynamic at play that runs on irresolvable tension checked with the kinds of bloody choices she is earnestly trying to avoid. So, the questions that arise from this are: at what point will Morgan realize that she cannot turn her grey existence black and white? How will conceding the necessity of violence affect her capacity for hope, her efforts for peace, and personal self-restraint? What role will she give herself, and her violence, in her community (i.e. under what circumstances does she deem it permissible, for which causes, which people, will she break herself a little by taking a life)?
Some of these questions will be addressed in the near future. To quote one of my collaborators: “YO THAT SHIT'S GONNA MAIM SO FUCKING HARD”
:-------)
The rest I am excited to vibe with as the story unfolds.
[meta] What "role" would you character be in a show or book? Would they be an antagonist, protagonist, foil for the protagonist, a character who talks directly to the audience, a villain of the week, or perhaps another role. Why?
// The beauty of our storytelling world is that you don't necessarily have to decide. In her first arc, Morgan turned out to be a fairly typical protagonist. In her revenge arc, she's more of an anti-hero. In the worlds of other characters, she's often a supportive supporting role as a friend or parental figure, or a one-off nuisance in a low-stakes problem-of-the-week.
Let's say, on a CW version of WIC: There's a fakeout in her introduction where she seems sketch but she was Good All Along, she's got a few short subplots of her own but mostly spends time connecting with the plucky Youth main characters and mentors them until she dies tragically for the drama.
HBO drama: secondary protagonist, divisive figure in the fandom
Commercial fiction: Are you telling me her dance with death shouldn't be a racy novel unto itself :/
[meta] What about your character makes you enjoy writing them?
// Morgan is the character I'm most proud of writing, full stop, and I'm not even sure if even I know all the reasons why. But:
Incorporating my sense of humor into my writing, something I've previously been too insecure to do.
Writing about Houston. Also been previously too insecure to do.
Writing someone who is selfish. A selfish character has room for so many contradictions. You don't necessarily expect someone as kind and forgiving as Morgan to be operating from a position of convenience and self-interest. But the bounds of her forgiveness end where her personal anguish begins. Her devotion to a cause goes as far as how it affects the people she loves and wants to keep. Often, she's drawn to give compassion to "bad" people, especially women, to enact something she longs for but cannot yet give herself and was not able to successfully give her mother. She secretly hopes that she will be gifted loving compassion in return. And sometimes she is. But as much as she truly loves her problematic faves, that thing she wants under it can't be satisfied in that way, so on she persists, fixing herself through other people.
The emotional range I end up pushing myself to attempt to reach. Because Morgan is how she is, I've had to confront so much more anger and grief and awe than I have in other writing projects. It's daunting in a good way, to carry as many feelings, some even contradicting each other in a single moment, as Morgan does.
How she's grown. Some of Morgan's defining characteristics (ex: her genuine capacity for hope) were made up on the spot for practical reasons or came to the forefront with the evolution of the roster. Some of her biggest moments (ex: turning zombie) came in 2am flashes or evolved with that special thrill of unexpected writing chemistry and organic growth. And with these surprises, because of this form and environment, she's become more interesting than she might have been, were I left solely to my own devices.
The stories I've been able to tell with her. Trying to make the most of Morgan has pushed me to test what I really know about storytelling and learn so much more about tension and escalation from the talented writers I partner with. I will always be proud of her revenge arc and the people who made it happen for me. I haven't had a better learning experience before or since.
What is the best day your character can imagine having?
// Hope springs eternal for Morgan, so her best and sappiest visions are all of the future. Also, this got long. Peace, love, and friendship dreams under the cut.
So...
Deirdre wakes up from the glare of the sun pouring through their bedroom windows. She smiles, having had no nightmares, and looks up into Morgan’s eyes because Morgan, for a change, is holding her in their bed.
After sexy enjoying one another’s company with no rush at all, the two of them go downstairs to the kitchen, and Morgan starts making breakfast. Deirdre sits on the counter, watches, admires, and occasionally licks the spoon. Before they finish, Bex and Mina come down, and there’s noise all over the room while Bex helps Morgan finish cooking and Mina and Deirdre confound each other with conversation.
The dishes can wait. Morgan kisses her family goodbye and goes to work, where she takes upper-division students on a deep dive through contemporary supernatural literature, and then does a big lecture event where she does a presentation about existential dread and immortality in zombie media. Because as a newly-minted tenure track professor, that’s stuff she gets to do now. Later, she visits Leah at the library, where the supernatural education scheme has grown into a large underground operation with mentorship and mutual aid between supernatural species thrown in. As a treat.
As the sun sets, Deirdre comes to pick her up, and Morgan delights in greeting her, being seen with her, in this peaceful community space. As they leave, she sees Griffin and Miriam going inside with the rest of the undead reading group she’s started. It’s only Griffin’s second time, but when their eyes meet, they both smile like they’re more okay than they’ve been in a while.
Deirdre drives them up Hambry Park for a picnic, and Morgan savors the bite of too-sweet wine on her teeth and the burn of spicy fried brains. They talk until the stars come out, and then they talk some more, and when they get tired of the ghosts snarking at their happiness, they go home and join the girls for part of their umpteenth movie night, and then excuse themselves smugly to their room so Bex and Mina can do what Bex and Mina like to do.
And for once, Morgan doesn’t resent the sharp clarity of her mind as she hears Deirdre’s slow banshee breath grow into sighs only she knows the rhythm of. For once, Morgan is grateful for the chance to play it all back in her head: the glare of the sun, the hum of a packed lecture all, the smiles of her friends, the butterfly tickle of her partner’s lips. And so, bundling herself into Deirdre’s arms, that’s just what Morgan does.
Meta Monday: What does your character considers their greatest strength/their greatest weakness? What do you as their player think is their greatest strength/weakness?
//Morgan believes her greatest strength is her emotional intelligence, her ability to get a read on people’s feelings, understand where they’re coming from, and how to make them feel better or encourage them to do better. And to her credit, she has cultivated a lot of good in her life that way. Seeing Deirdre and Miriam find some relief from their pain and some measure of happiness, for example, is unspeakably satisfying for her to witness. But her connections with the people she cares for across the board are what she values most, especially after having gone most of her life forcing herself to pull back, and she knows she has those largely in part because of her ability to find points of connection.
Morgan would say that her greatest weakness is her capacity for anger. She does not like how it flattens out complex situations in her mind, how she lashes out when she loses her temper, and how last winter, giving in to that anger caused a lot of trouble and harmed a lot of people. And, of course, Morgan associates anger with her mother’s volatile temper and fears becoming like her one day. That’s another reason for her not to value it.
--
Personally, I think Morgan’s determination is her greatest strength, her sheer persistence in the face of any kind of odds, that ‘fuck it, I’m gonna try anyway, and keep trying,’ energy. It’s kept her from falling into some of the toxic coping mechanisms of her ancestors and has also helped cultivate some of her most valued connections.
As far as weaknesses go, I think her capacity for empathy is a liability as much as it’s an asset. It’s the fulcrum behind her chaotic neutral morality and her deep capacity for forgiveness. These are generally good things. But they have lead Morgan toward some of the choices she carries shame for, like not being proactive about Lydia, or allowing Miriam to operate her vengeance in peace, so long as it didn’t affect her personal life. It has, and probably will continue to, draw her into situations where someone she cares deeply for feels betrayed. It’s all lovely when your friend is ride or die and understands your hurt until she starts reaching out for and protecting active murderers, torturers, etc. who her friends have been harmed by.
But Morgan isn’t wrong about her anger either. Not because she’s suddenly going to turn into Ruth Beck 2.0 (a hard feat, since Ruth was able to operate the way she did by a staunch lack of empathy), but because it does make her shut down and reduce situations to simple components. Her sense of protectiveness, however, does this too, and much more often. And that is not something Morgan recognizes about herself.
